Unseen Understandings
by RedKetchup
Summary: What a small price it is to pay, being the secret keeper, if it's the least he can do for his shitty captain.


It's Viola-chwan who ends up telling him, voice crackling through the Den Den Mushi's mouth as they wait for someone to bring Luffy and the others to the phone.

She explains it simply enough, but it still feels like he misses a key part. Like the first thing she said was, _And that's what happened_, without any other context. He rolls a cigarette between two fingers, the paper wrinkled and torn from the abuse the pack got in the fight earlier.

"The _Hobi Hobi no mi_," he murmurs to himself, and it's the second time.

"Yes, Sugar's ability. Anyone she touches turns into a toy-"

"-and the memory of them is erased from everyone who knows them," he finishes.

Viola-chwan _mhm_'s quietly, but it's the loudest noise in the galley. Nami, Momonosuke, and Chopper are sleeping in Nami-chawn's room - _the lucky bastards_ - and Brook is on watch. The ship is crawling along calm waters, taking a way that Nami insists will take them to the next island, but is still a detour they used to escape Big Mama.

The fight they started didn't go as well as it could have. Sanji's leg twinges as he remembers, all wrapped up in a cast Chopper fitted for him. It's a simpler injury than what could have happened.

"You said Robin-swan, our archaeologist, got turned into one of the toys?"

"Yes, Usopp-san told me about it. He managed to knock Sugar unconscious, though, and it reversed the _Hobi Hobi no mi's_ effects. He's truly a brave man, Sanji-san. You should have seen him."

His teeth almost crack, he's gritting them so hard.

Robin-chwan disappeared from his memories, and he can't even _remember_ it.

There was no moment when he felt something _missing_, either, let alone something as important as Robin. Nor was there a realization that hurtled back through his mind, burning through his thoughts that he let a nakama fade into nothing like water down the drain.

He would have gone on, and the question of Nico Robin?

The answer would have been, _Who?_

"Viola-chwan," he says, and his voice is sandpaper, thick like dirty smoke. "Was there anyone else? Did Sugar get any of my other nakama?"

Something rustles on the other end, and he pictures her shifting uncomfortably in her clothing. Sanji's chest twists, like there's a haki fist jammed between his ribs.

"Viola-chawn?" he asks.

_Luffy, the shitty swordsman, Usopp, Nami-chwan, Chopper, Robin-swan, Franky, Brook_, he thinks to himself. _Luffy, Marimo, Usopp, Nami-chwan, Chopper, Robin-swan, Franky, Brook._

Except he wouldn't know if someone was missing, would he?

"_Viola_," he presses desperately.

She takes a breath, and her voice is hushed when she says, "Sanji-san, will you keep a secret? For me? Please?"

His heart is Luffy's Gatling Gun, ramming its way up his throat. "Ah... anything for you, Viola-chwan, but my nakama? What about the others?"

And she tells him.

"Oh," he says. "_Oh_."

That's when he hears Luffy in the background, crowing loudly into existence like some shitty, rubbery banshee.

"It's our secret, okay?" Viola-chwan says quickly, and that's when the Den Den Mushi changes hands.

* * *

><p>Of course it would be.<p>

His secret to keep, he means.

It's just like with Thriller Bark, when he wakes up to nothing but dust and blood in his throat and Roronoa Zoro being a selfish bastard.

Exactly like how he'll never tell about the moss-head hitting him hard enough to make his legs go out from under him, fingers dragging down scraped skin as he struggled to fight off the black in his vision. Like how he won't speak a word about what exactly their swordsman gave for Luffy's sake.

This time it's no different. It's the same as when three swords were cast aside like flowers to a grave or when there was a plaster mask muffling the voice of Sogeking amidst a battlefield.

If Usopp wants to blast away Luffy's obstacles then he can go ahead. Sanji will deal with the ones he can't shoot down.

Besides, what a small price it is to pay, being the secret keeper, if it's the least he can do for his shitty captain.

* * *

><p>I know this isn't shippy at all, but I was inspired by <em>itsnolawluse<em>'s sanuso sketches. Idk I was feeling some Sanji and some sniper Usopp, mmmkay?


End file.
